Tag: GreatLakesNews

{Fears grow after Human Rights Watch reports at least 26 people killed in demonstrations as Joseph Kabila refuses to go.}

Security forces in Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 26 demonstrators and arrested scores more amid growing protests against Joseph Kabila’s hold on power, according to a human rights group.

Despite the bloodshed overnight, the situation was calm early on Wednesday.

The killings on Tuesday were the first reported since Kabila’s mandate to rule ended on Monday at midnight after 15 years as president. He has refused to cede power until new elections are held, which may not happen until 2018.

Protesters set fire to the headquarters of the ruling party in the capital, Kinshasa.

Military and police forces fired live rounds, raising fears more people may have been killed, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Its researcher, Ida Sawyer, said on Twitter the killings took place in Kinshasa, the southern city of Lubumbashi, and elsewhere.

Residents also told the group Republican Guards were carrying out door-to-door searches and arresting young people. Authorities have also blocked most social media.

Political talks between the ruling party and opposition, which stalled over the weekend, were expected to resume on Wednesday with mediators from the Catholic church.

{{‘End of the match’}}

Kabila, who took office in 2001 after his father’s assassination, is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, but a court has ruled he can remain in power until new elections, which have been delayed indefinitely. The poll was meant to be held in November, but the ruling party said it needs more time – until 2018, at least.

The leader of Congo’s largest opposition party, Etienne Tshisekedi, urged peaceful resistance to what he called Kabila’s “coup d’etat”.

In a statement posted on YouTube on Tuesday, he called the president’s actions “treason” and appealed to the Congolese people and the international community to no longer recognise Kabila’s authority.

The political impasse has fuelled fears of widespread unrest in the central African nation, which has vast natural resources but remains one of the world’s poorest and most unstable countries.

Negotiations have stalled over a date for new elections and the release of political prisoners.

Both are key demands of the opposition parties, along with the dropping of criminal charges against opposition leader Moise Katumbi, who fled the country as authorities announced plans to prosecute him for allegedly hiring mercenaries.

Katumbi’s supporters say the charges are politically motivated.

Dozens of people were killed in September when the opposition took to the streets after the electoral commission failed to schedule the presidential election.

Western powers are nervous about a repeat of the conflicts between 1996 and 2003 that killed millions, drew in half a dozen neighbouring armies, and saw rebel fighters rape women en masse.

Congo has not experienced a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

{More than 500 families from Kagaragara locality of Buringa Commune in Bubanza western province of Burundi have been forcibly moved from their homes. They are all camping out around Buringa zone office. They say no one is helping them and call on Burundian authorities to bring them back to their lands.}

“We arrived here on Sunday 18 December after the defense forces have forced us to leave our homes for reasons that have not so far been communicated to us. We came from Kagaragara locality of Buringa commune in Bubanza province, “says one of the displaced people.

He says he thought soldiers were going to carry out a search operation as usual when he saw them surrounding the area. “They ordered us to come out of the houses and get out our belongings before taking us to the Buringa zone office,” he says.

He says he does not understand why they have been displaced from their lands while they have been living there for a long time. “I am 45 years old now. I have been living in Kagaragara area since my birth”, he says.

He asked the government of Burundi to bring them back to their homes, explaining that they carried out many development projects there. “We had rice fields, banana and manioc plantations. We formed development associations each one with more than 1,000 members. We do not understand the motives behind our displacement from the locality. We lived in peace, “he says.

“We will die of hunger”

Nakintije Mélanie says it is deplorable for a Burundian citizen to be kicked out of his/her land and home without any explanation. “We’ve been here since Sunday. We left our possessions in our houses, we cannot go back to retrieve them. We are unhappy and have nothing to eat here. No authority has so far come to assist us. We cannot get medical treatment because we left administrative documents in our houses,” says Nakintije. Some children are obliged to drop out of school because they have left their school materials and there is no food to eat.

“We used bank credits to grow rice. How will we pay back loans when we no longer have access to our fields? We plead with the President of the Republic, MPs elected in the constituency to come and see our plight,” says Nakintije.

Tharcisse Niyongabo, Bubanza Province governor, said on the national radio that Kagaragara residents were moved from their lands for security reasons. He said there are criminals who destabilize the country from the Rukoko Natural Park. “We cannot fight them as long as Kagaragara residents are still there,” said Niyongabo. He also said the decision to displace them has been taken to protect the environment.

Niyongabo also said some Kagaragara inhabitants cultivate within the boundaries of the Natural Reserve of Rukoko while others practice poaching, which is prohibited by the Burundi environmental code.

{More than 20 people have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, over President Joseph Kabila’s failure to give up power, a UN official has said.}

Some of the dead were shot at close range by troops, witnesses said.

Mr Kabila’s 15-year rule was due to have ended on Monday at midnight, but has been extended to 2018.

Mr Kabila’s main rival said the refusal to give up power amounted to a coup.

The electoral commission cancelled elections that were scheduled for last month, citing logistical and financial difficulties in organising them.

Mr Kabila has now formed a 74-member transitional government to lead the vast central African state until elections are held in 2018.

There were “solid” reports that 20 civilians had been killed in clashes in Kinshasa, said Jose Maria Aranaz, the UN human rights director for DR Congo.

“On the issue of deaths, it looks bad,” he was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

Gunfire was also heard in the second city, Lubumbashi, but it was unclear who was behind the shooting.

In a video posted on social media, main opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called for peaceful protests to demand Mr Kabila’s resignation.

“I launch a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to not recognise the… illegal and illegitimate authority of Joseph Kabila and to peacefully resist [his] coup d’etat,” Mr Tshisekedi said.

His message was not available in DR Congo, where authorities have restricted access to social media networks, the AFP news agency reports.

DR Congo has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Mr Kabila took power in 2001 following the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila.
The constitution bars him from seeking a third term in office.

{The facilitator in Burundi crisis felt it was essential to end the issue of the legitimacy of President Pierre Nkurunziza to move forward.}

“Those who want me to question the legitimacy of Pierre Nkurunziza are out of their mind, it is the people who have given legitimacy to the government,” Benjamin Mkapa told journalists.

The statement was made at the press conference that closed his visit on 9 December. He recalled that the Burundi Constitutional Court and the East African Court of Justice have ruled on the legitimacy of Bujumbura government.

“Even the Security Council recognizes Pierre Nkurunziza as president. He wondered: “Why should we waste so much time discussing an issue that has been solved?” To illustrate this, the facilitator cited the example of the ambassadors who present their credentials to President Nkurunziza.

During the meeting, the former Tanzanian president also spoke of his ultimate goal. It is a question of “bringing the parties to prepare the general elections of 2020 in such a way that they are fair, free and credible”.

As for the stakeholders of the inter-Burundi dialogue, he was clear: “The instigators of the coup and those who have dived into violence have no place at the negotiation table. They are not my priority. I ask the host countries to control them well so that they do not destabilize our ongoing dialogue. “His priority is therefore to bring together non-violent opposition and the government in order to reach an agreement that will allow them to move forward.

At the press conference, President Mkapa also spoke about the internal dialogue conducted by the National Commission for Inter-Burundian Dialogue (CNDI). According to him, the Burundian population is entitled to engage in internal dialogue. He concluded: “We do not have the prerogatives to deny the Burundian people the right to review their history or revise their Constitution.”

{Mr Kaweesi said the suspects, under the guise of securing Weldo a visa, realized that he had over 2 million euros on his Ugandan accounts and hatched a plan to eliminate him.}

A UPDF soldier at the rank of captain has been arrested in connection with the kidnap and murder of an Eritrean businessman with the intention of stealing 2 millon euros (Shs8 billion) from him.

Capt Hakim Mangeni and his alleged accomplices; Mr Ben Lumu and Rucy Katuramu were arrested by the police Flying Squad Unit (FSU) at the weekend over allegations of killing Deniel Weldo.

Mr Andrew Kaweesi, the police spokesperson said the trio duped Weldo, a former South Sudan businessman that they would help him to get a visa to German from where he could transact business.

Mr Kaweesi said the suspects, under the guise of securing Weldo a visa, realized that he had over 2 million euros on his Ugandan accounts and hatched a plan to eliminate him.

“Weldo was reported missing on October 27. The police mounted a search. He was on weekend recovered murdered at a farm in Busia District of Kenya. Three suspects have been arrested and charged with murder,” Mr Kaweesi said told journalists at the police headquarters in Kampala on Monday.

Mr Kaweesi said the suspects connived with two local banks and transferred Weldo’s money. He, however, declined to reveal the banks for fear of litigation.

“This racket involved two commercial banks. We have learnt some employees of local banks conspire with criminals to defraud foreigners who have a lot of money on their accounts,” Mr Kaweesi said.

He said criminals and some bank employees have resorted to killing clients who have big amounts of money on their accounts and withdraw the money expecting nobody to tress the crime.

He said Weldo was the second Eritrean to be targeted by criminals this year although the first one survived being killed and his about Shs7.5 billion was never withdrawn.

Weldo was a 32-year- old man who operated his business from South Sudan. He relocated to Uganda after an armed conflict between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former First Vice president Riek Machar.

Although Mr Kaweesi could not divulge how police got information linking the suspects to the crime, a police source said the Eritrean envoy and Weldo’s relatives presented his cell phone and other documents which FSU used to extract call printouts from local telecom companies.

“We have credible information that the murder was masterminded by Capt Mangeni. He is the one who gave orders that Weldo be crossed to Busia in Kenya from where he was killed,” Mr Kaweesi said.

The body has since been brought to the City Mortuary at Mulago Hospital.

{Members of Parliament engaged in fist-fights as they haggled over how to use added time forcing a live broadcast of the session to be switched off as Cord MPs tried to grab the Mace.}

The National Assembly diverted from its core mandate of debating and passing laws to haggling over whether a special sitting should end at 6.30pm so that MPs break for holidays.

It was one of chaotic scenes that involved insults, cat-calls and jeers on a day when MPs were recalled to pass a budget policy statement and change election laws.

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi was forced to intervene twice to extend sessions in the morning and afternoon after legislators engaged in non-core functions of the day.

“I am clear in my mind that a special sitting is not exempt from provisions of the standing order 30 regarding the hours of sitting. But in that standing order, there is discretion given to the speaker. For the convenience of the House, the speaker may direct earlier or later interruption of the House,” he ruled after an-hour-and half of stalemate over the extension.

“None of you has directed me on that particular aspect. There is need therefore to recover the lost time and I therefore direct that the House may continue to sit for a further 55 minutes after which the House shall stand adjourned. How you utilise that time is upon you,” he ruled.

The legislators endorsed a proposal to limit external borrowing by the Treasury to Sh500 billion but in a decision roiled with delaying tactics from opposition MPs as they bid to avoid debating proposed changes to electoral laws.

They endorsed Budget Policy Statement tabled by the Budget and Appropriations Committee to restrict the National Treasury from borrowing beyond six per cent of the GDP. It means that the government will not be allowed to borrow Sh582 billion (7 per cent of GDP) it intended to supplement the fiscal budget.

Instead, MPs recommended that the debt ceiling be restricted further in 2018 to five per cent of the GDP until it is at 4 per cent by 2020.

But these discussions diverted to stormy session in parliament as Jubilee-leaning MPs got restless over an apparent delay to start the third reading of the Election Laws Amendment Bill 2015 whose debate could change the way elections are managed next year.

This was a special sitting of the House and the notice for it indicated that the budget, election laws, approval of members of the Commission of Revenue Allocation, members of the Climate Change Council as well as approval of the Elections Campaign Financing Regulations 2016 was to be debated.

But opposition MPs started the day by delaying the House session by over two hours in the morning, before using delaying tactics to stop a discussion on the controversial laws by wanting to debate more on the budget.

While opposition argued the budget was the most important, the Jubilee side argued the MPs had a duty to also look at the proposed changes to the election laws that had in fact influenced the special sitting.

“The budget is the most important issue for us and we must also tell the nation what we feel,” Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo who is also the Deputy Minority Leader argued.

But Majority Leader Aden Duale countered by saying the House had come back on a special sitting specifically to discuss all the issues on the order paper.

In the end, Speaker Muturi had to call for a vote on whether the mover of the motion should respond to the arguments. After pulling and pushing, the speaker orderrd a vote. The result was that 105 ayes, nays 76 in electronic voting while 39 ayes and 14 nays in the manual voting. It meant that 144 MPs had voted for it and 90 others opposed it.

But this was 6.45pm, way beyond the 6.30 deadline. When Suna East MP Junet Mohammed stood up to raise the question on why such a motion was being passed beyond allocated time, some Jubilee MPs shouted “NYS, NYS”, after his name was thrown around for having a hand in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.

It extended the storm with Mr Duale arguing the notice for the Special Sitting had not indicated time.

But Mr Midiwo told the House a day for the national assembly should end at 6pm as it is with normal sessions.

“Time for this House cannot be cooked. Mr Speaker allow us to go home for Christmas, please,” he said.

Would a Special Sitting be exempt from Standing Order 29, 30 or 256? It got complicated.

With time, the budget was forgotten as MPs tried to outdo each other by quoting the Standing Orders or insulting the other side using the NYS scandal as the code.

The legislators were discussing the Budget Statement and Debt Management Strategy for 2017/18 for the current budget accused the national government of being too optimistic about the economy and having “an appetite for borrowing” even when financial experts had warned of rising debt levels.

They were in agreement that there was a need to restrict borrowing especially since there had been little proper use of the borrowed money.

“To manage debt in this country, the National Treasury must check its appetite for borrowing, the government must strive to check its tendency for corruption and control wastage which we are witnessing,” said Rev Mutava Musyimi, the Chairman of the Committee.

Of concern to legislators is the suggestion from the national government that the economy could grow by 6.2 per cent in 2017 and 6.6 per cent in 2018.

“Significant resources have been invested in infrastructure and on improving the business environment. But we are not seeing efforts to widen the capital base. We are not putting serious and creative thinking to agriculture,” added Mr Musyimi as he moved the motion.

Suba MP John Mbadi said: “We have a Treasury that is still too optimistic about the economy. How realistic are these projections? We need to ask ourselves whether we are profiting other countries like China who are bringing so many resources in this country, including labour.

“Many Kenyans are asking, where is this economic growth? Prudent financial management require that you invest money that you borrow in sectors that are productive,” he added.

This year’s budget is worth Sh1.54 trillion with the counties getting Sh299.1 billion of shared revenues as well as a further Sh34 billion in grants from the national government, making it Sh333 billion.

But the executive, would take the lion’s share of the remaining money as Parliament takes Sh36 billion and Judiciary Sh18 billion. And MPs charged that the government has been poor at accounting for money.

“The major problem of budget making we have in this country is that no one tells us how previous budgets performed. With this ceiling, we are likely to curb corruption by obtaining feedback,” Gatundu North MP Francis Kigo who seconded the motion said.

{Eight women have been arrested here over charges of mutilating hundreds of girls in the district. Tarime District Commissioner (DC) Glorious Luoga confirmed the latest arrest of the female mutilators, ng’ariba, yesterday.}

“Already, eight female circumcisers have been arrested and all people behind the mutilation of girls this year will be arrested and taken to court,” vowed the DC, hinting that the suspects were arrested from various parts of the district, including Nyamwaga and Sirari.

Mr Luoga was speaking during the second graduation ceremony of the Tanzania Safe Circumcision (TaSaCi) that involved 237 boys from different parts of Tarime who had undergone the safe circumcision.

TaSaCi Director, Fr Ernest Kamugisha, who is also the Parish’s Priest of Sirari Roman Catholic Church where the graduation took place, said TaSaCi aim was to eliminate traditional circumcision practices that subject boys to unnecessary severe pains and excessive bleeding.

“We thank all parents and stakeholders who supported TaSaCi to conduct safe circumcision for these 237 boys,” Fr Kamugisha said. The boys camped at TaSaCi for several days after undergoing the operation.

Mr Luoga lauded TaSaCi for introducing the programme in the society whose culture still values the traditional knife circumcision and FGM. But, he strongly warned that anyone trying to double cut the boys who benefited from the programme will be dealt with accordingly, ordering the police force to have no mercy on the culprits.

“We need to protect girls and boys against these brutal acts,” Mr Luoga insisted. There are reports that several female circumcisers had also been arrested and taken to court in the neighbouring Serengeti District. Mr Luoga said it was time for the communities in Mara Region to snub outdated cultures like FGM and instead direct their efforts to development issues like education.

FGM is illegal, according to the laws of the country and Mara is rated as one of the top five regions that practise FGM in the country.

On Monday, two women, Mbusiro Kitari and Wegesa John were sentenced to three years’ imprisonment each in Serengeti District for subjecting a minor to FGM. They were also fined 300,000/- each and ordered to pay the victim 2m/- each as compensation after completing their sentences.

{Protests erupted in several neighborhoods of the Congolese capital Kinshasa late on Monday and police fired tear gas to disperse them, witnesses said, just before President Joseph Kabila’s mandate expires at midnight.}

Demonstrators in the districts of Kalamu, Matete and Lingwala and at Kinshasa University blew whistles to signal to Kabila that it was time to leave, and students at the university burned tires, multiple witnesses said.

Hundreds of anti-Kabila demonstrators earlier defied a ban on marches against the president’s plans to stay in office past the end of his term, and security forces faced off against groups waving red cards saying “Bye, bye Kabila.”

Opposition activists have accused Kabila of trying to cling to power by letting his term run out without an election to chose the next leader of Congo, which has not witnessed a peaceful change of power since independence in 1960.

“Kabila’s mandate finishes at 1159. … Tomorrow (Tuesday) it will be chaos,” said Hugue Ilunga, 21, as dozens of soldiers deployed nearby in the capital, an opposition stronghold of 12 million people.

Shops shut in other parts of Kinshasa, and streets in the capital were largely empty.

At least 80 protesters were arrested in the eastern city of Goma, the U.N. human rights office in Congo said, mostly activists who were simply wearing red shirts, an opposition color. Police said nine opposition demonstrators were detained.

Kabila’s elite Republican Guard also arrested prominent opposition activist Franc Diongo in Kinshasa, Kikaya said, after Diongo’s private guards beat up three of them.

Militia fighters raided a jail in eastern Congo’s Butembo trying to free prisoners, triggering clashes that killed a South African U.N. peacekeeper and a police officer.

Seven attackers were also killed, Kabila’s chief diplomat, Barnabe Kikaya, told a news conference in Kinshasa.

“FLIRTATION WITH DISASTER”

The government and elections officials have blamed logistical and financial problems for the delay in the vote, currently scheduled for April 2018.

Some opposition leaders agreed Kabila can remain in office until then. The constitutional court has also ruled that Kabila, leader since his father was assassinated in 2001, can stay on.

But the main opposition bloc rejects the deal as a ploy, though it said it would not call protests. Talks mediated by the Roman Catholic church failed to reach a compromise.

“Joseph Kabila will remain in office tomorrow,” Kikaya said.

Authorities have blocked most social media and outlawed protests in Kinshasa, raising fears of more violence in a nation that has been plagued by war and instability for two decades since the fall of kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko.

Diplomats fear any escalation could trigger a conflict like the 1996 to 2003 wars that killed millions, sucked in neighboring armies and saw armed groups clash over Congo’s mineral wealth and the use of mass rape as a strategic weapon.

U.S. Great Lakes envoy Tom Perriello on Thursday said that Kabila’s hanging on was “an entirely unnecessary flirtation with disaster,” in a speech at the United States Institute of Peace.

Youth activists say they have taken inspiration from Burkina Faso in West Africa, where protests ousted Blaise Compaore in 2014 as he was trying to extend his 27-year rule.

As in Burkina, protests in Congo are in part driven by economic desperation. Congo is Africa’s biggest miner of copper and metals used in gadgets, like cobalt and coltan, but a slowdown linked to falls in commodity prices has triggered steep budget cuts and a 30 percent fall in the Congolese franc.

However, the country of 70 million people and more than 200 ethnic groups is fragmented. Previous protests achieved little.

Former colonial master Belgium advised its citizens to leave before Monday. The United States warned against non-essential travel, telling expatriates who remain to stay indoors.

Outside Congo, South African police used stun grenades to disperse anti-Kabila protesters in Cape Town.

{She’s watching the road just outside her house, sitting on a tree trunk used as a barricade during anti-government protests last year against President Pierre Nkurunziza. And she’s talking to herself.}

“This person walks like Benny. Even his shirt looks like Benny’s,” she says, her grief heavy, as a man walks past the house.

Janet Bizimana’s* son disappeared on 19 January, 2016. Her neighbour says that on the 19th of each month she stays up crying through the night.

Burundi has been through many dark days of brutal violence: its two civil wars and repeated bouts of ethnic cleansing have all left scars in this small, densely populated country.

And the violence is far from over. For almost two years now, Burundi has been torn by renewed political conflict in which hundreds of people have been killed, and thousands detained and tortured – all creating fresh layers of trauma.

Opposition to Nkurunziza flared over his decision to run for a third presidential term, which many viewed as unconstitutional. He won the controversial elections in July last year after surviving an attempted coup, and Burundi has teetered on the brink of civil war ever since.

The conflict, which is in danger of re-opening the ethnic-based fault lines of the past, has forced 327,400 Burundians to flee into neighbouring countries. Burundi has a total population of just 10 million.

{{Two narratives}}

While Burundian human rights activists say 1,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 detained since April 2015, the government insists the situation is improving, and was backed recently by the president of the National Independent Human Rights Commission, Jean-Baptiste Baribonekeza.

“The country is calm; we no longer hear gun shots in the capital,” Baribonekeza was quoted as saying by IWACU English News. “If we visit places of detention, we notice that the number of arrested people has significantly decreased from more than 9,000 in 2015 to about 6,000 today. In general, there has been an improvement compared to last year.”

Mutakura is a low-income district of junior civil servants and small-scale company workers outside the capital, Bujumbura.

It’s also the home of Bizimana*, the 70-year-old mother of Benny Runyaga*, who was a well-known member of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Justice, a party linked to the rebel RED-Tabara group.

“When the phone rings at home, she’s the first to run to pick it up. She thinks her son will be on the line,” explains a family friend. “It’s the same thing when someone knocks on the door. She tries to be the first to open the door, believing her son will come home.”

Benny Runyaga was the father of two children. The youngest was born only a month before he disappeared, presumably picked up by the police.

“The oldest child takes his father’s clothes, lays them out, and calls his mother and says, ‘mum, here is dad’,” explains a neighbour.

Not knowing whether Runyaga is alive or dead is torturing the family, especially Janet. The neighbour is worried she might need institutional care.

{{“Feeding on blood”}}

Jane* is also a victim. Her husband, an army officer, died in an attack on their home in Bujumbura. Their four children still ask when he will come back to them.

“Only the oldest child, who is almost nine, seems to understand what happened to us. Every day, he asks why the world is so mean to refuse him the right to hold his father’s hand,” Jane tells IRIN.

{{Discover More}}

{{Burundi walks away from the ICC}}

“Every time we visit his grave he tells me that he’s scared that those who killed my husband can see us.

“He tells me: ‘They are here, mum; they are following us; they don’t want us to come here. They are animals, mum: beasts feeding on blood.” Her voice is shaking.

Apart from the emotional impact, the loss of Jane’s husband has had a devastating economic effect on the family.

“I’ve had to leave the house we lived in before the attack for another, cheaper one. I am not paying the rent because I don’t have a job. Friends, acquaintances, and some old colleagues of my husband are paying for me and the children,” she explains.

“They are doing it secretly because they are afraid too. We never got the results from the investigation [into her husband’s death].

“Even old friends of my husband, although members of the security forces, or in defence, are asking about the investigation into his death, like I am.”

Jane doesn’t want to talk about whether he had any political affiliations.

{{Disorders
}}

Jean-Pierre Ntamatungiro* is a psychologist with a private office in Bujumbura’s city centre.

“Before the crisis, I was seeing at least three patients with signs of trauma,” he tells IRIN. “Today, I receive nine or 10 every day. Do the maths and you’ll see the number of people we receive every month. It’s a big number for a small country like Burundi.”

The people who come for counselling are only those who can afford it. Others are left on the streets, and many young people are taking to drugs, the psychologist says.

“[This crisis] affects young people from all political parties in Burundi: opposition and pro-government alike,” says Ntamatungiro*. “Some of them have developed suicidal tendencies, following what they have seen. There are others who have lost the ability to speak, following what they went through or witnessed.”

{{The future}}

Last month, IRIN watched three boys playing on the streets of Bujumbura’s southern Musaga district. It’s an area known for opposition to the government, and therefore also for crackdowns by the security forces.

One of the boys was imitating a policeman. “Get out of your house or I’ll shoot the door,” he commanded.

Another had a small round stone, which he pretended was a grenade; the third was singing a popular song from last year against the re-election of Nkurunziza.

They were scattered back to their families by an older man – made uncomfortable by what he was witnessing and the presence of a journalist.

“They are only repeating what they saw here,” explained a passer-by. “But I have doubts for the future of these children in such a country.”